The sky’s the limit
English (uncharacteristically) has two, if not even three, words for the sphere above us: sky, heaven, and firmament.
The musical genius of Tommy Tune: “old plus old equals new”
From the beginning, Tommy Tune was pulled as if by centrifugal force toward dance and the Broadway musical. He was taking dancing lessons by the age of five, but his early ambition to be a ballet dancer was abandoned when he shot up in height during his teenage years. He later joked about his extreme height, saying, “Sometimes, instead of thinking of myself as six-foot-six, I tell myself I’m only five-foot-eighteen.”
Why increasing deglobalization is putting vulnerable populations at risk
The record of globalization is decidedly mixed. Whereas proponents tend to associate globalization with beneficial developments such as the expansion of democracy and improved access to goods and services, critics highlight the human costs: rising inequality and political and economic exploitation.
Fake news, misinformation, and disinformation: journalism today?
[Reading list] Fake, false, inaccurate, misleading, and deceptive. This rhetoric is all too familiar to the news consuming public today. But what is fake news and how does it differ from misinformation and disinformation?
Police-free schools: the new frontier in ending the school-to-prison pipeline
There is no research-based evidence that demonstrates that police improve safety in schools. As opposed to promoting safety, school police target students of color and those with disabilities, which starts them on the road to prison.
Many words for a small world and a little-known centennial
What do we call the world in which we live? The specifically Germanic noun “world” is perhaps the most puzzling word known in this area.
The Arctic Paradox: why the Arctic is caught in the conflicting pressures of global climate change
The Arctic is now exceeding climate change predictions by decades—it features prominently in the Sixth IPCC Assessment Report (AR6) of the IPCC due in 2022, especially in relation to climate change impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability.
Engineering a new capitalism for the 21st century
Former Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney has observed that society has, unfortunately, come to embody Oscar Wilde’s old aphorism: “knowing the price of everything but the value of nothing”.
Five books on climate change you need to read
Keep abreast of the latest climate science by delving into this reading list of five books on different elements of climate change.
Resisting racism within America’s WWII military: stories from the frontline
America’s World War II military was a force of unalloyed good. While saving the world from Nazism, it also managed to unify a famously fractious American people. At least that’s the story many Americans have long told themselves… But the reality is starkly different. The military built not one color line, but a complex tangle […]
English idioms: etymological devilry in baking and printing
It is curious how often those who have tried to explain the origin of English idioms have referred to the occupation of printers. Regardless of their success, the attempts are worthy of note.
Why depth interviewing is essential to understanding individuals and institutions
Once assumed to be a core research tool, many of today’s researchers have cast a skeptical eye on depth interviewing. These critiques reflect a fundamental misunderstanding about what depth interviews can accomplish.
The appearance of the goddess Discord: Gustave Moreau and a mythical tradition
Usually considered as the first French Symbolist painter, Moreau rejected the dominant artistic trends of his time in order to explore his own anxieties and longings by returning to the Greek myths.
A pre-9/11 action movie with a Muslim hero shows what could have been
In the fall of 1999, another action movie came and went, garnering disappointed reviews and a pittance in ticket sales. Adapted from Michael Crichton’s novel “Eaters of the Dead”, The 13th Warrior offered a surprising premise.
How OUP is innovating for the future of open research
Innovations in open research can help to address disinformation, making a wider range of information accessible and available, ensuring reproducibility, and facilitating reuse.
Caring for our most vulnerable: lessons from COVID-19 on policy changes in the care home sector
If the true measure of any society is how it cares for its most vulnerable, then the catastrophic impact of COVID-19 on care home residents during the first wave of the pandemic was a sad indictment. Older people living in care homes are truly our most vulnerable.